Make sure that your husband doesn't have sleep apnea -- repeated periods when his breathing stops while sleeping for many seconds at a time.

Hi, I'm not positive if my husband has sleep apnea or not, although I wouldn't be surprised if he did. His snoring seems to have improved recently but it used to be loud and almost painful sounding. I'm unclear what the connection between apnea and his joint pain is though.

The reduced oxygen intake from sleep apnea has two effects which cause a gout attack to develop while sleeping. The first effect is that the reduced oxygen level in the blood causes the cells of the body to start disintegrating, which causes them to overproduce uric acid fed into the blood. Once the uric acid is formed, the process is irreversible, so that periods of restored breathing do not cause the uric acid to revert to a prior chemical form in the cells. Thus, each epneic period feeds more uric acid into the blood, faster than the kidneys can remove it. The second effect is that the reduced oxygen level in the blood causes the blood to be more acidic, thereby reducing the solubility of uric acid. As a result the overconcentration of uric acid precipitates out of the blood in the form of crystals of monosodium urate. When these crystals lodge in a joint, they initiate the immune system response of intense pain and inflammation known as gout. Snoring is often a symptom of sleep apnea, but a tell-tale sign is when the person stops snoring for many seconds because he isn't breathing and then restarts with a loud snort.

Your husband's doctor probably isn't aware of this connection between gout and sleep apnea. Most doctors aren't. The best thing that you can do for your husband is insist that he be tested for sleep apnea, and then that he faithfully comply with whatever treatment is recommended to overcome it. Getting rid of his sleep apnea will probably cure his gout, but more importantly it will greatly reduce his risk for developing the long term and much more serious consequences of untreated sleep apnea - heart attack, heart arrhythmia, atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney disease, and many others.

Good luck.

Hi,

I am a Gout sufferer too from the past 2 yrs. I would sincerely suggest he see a Reumatologist for a faster help I had been given Indo by a physician and that did not help me when I saw the reumatologist I was given an injection and can u believe I came walking out of his clinic by myself without the help of crutches. But this is for immediate relief.

What he needs to do is avoid red meat, seafood, lamb etc alltogether STRICTLY and eat only chicken if possible. Black cheery juice helps and also reduce yeast food . If he is overweight like me excercise is imp I have started walking 2 miles a day now instead of being in front of a computer all day.

Also most importantly drink one whole lime or lemon juice raw first thing early in the morning after brushing on an empty stomach and let him drink lemonade or lime squeezed in water, fresh at least 3 glasses a day not store brought pl.

This will dilute the uric acid and helps to flush out of the body and keep the attacks under control

I have been doing all of the above and my attacks are limited and short. Pl note I am not a doctor but I found practicing the above definetly helped me and still is. These are simple and non expensive and I hope he will benefit from this. Pl avoid seafood , lamb , red meat at all costs in my opinion for protein use lentils instead of meat. I know how painful this is not only for the person but on the whole family as we are basically bed ridden during that period and going to a restroom is a pain too Good luck
Jo